Chapter 1
Chapter 1
It’s been seven years since the Battle of Hogwarts, yet her mind still haunts her as if she’s still there, fighting to save her friends and those she had considered family.
Deciding to distance herself from the wizarding world she settled in muggle London, keeping mostly to herself and finding work as a bookseller in a Muggle bookshop.
She cut contact with most of her friends, tired of telling them that she didn’t want to work for the ministry, tired of Rita and her incessant need to publish gossip articles about her love life that had fallen to pieces, tired of everyone expecting the golden girl to lead and be strong when she could barely keep herself from falling apart.
Her day should’ve been like any other as she dragged herself from bed, dressing and doing her normal routine. Her arm throbs as she unwraps the gauze on it, her arm yet again bleeding as the word ‘Mudblood’ looks back at her angrily. She sighs in annoyance and dabs at it with some toilet paper until it stops bleeding before she puts ointment on it and re-wraps it. When she finishes she goes back to her room and throws on a simple brown plaid skirt that hit mid-thigh, sheer skin-toned leggings and a cream-coloured sweater before going to her apartment kitchen and making herself a coffee in her favourite to-go cup.
As she waits for her coffee, she ties back her unruly curly hair using a silver hair stick with an intricate ivy design that flows to an ivy leaf embellishment at the top of the stick. She takes her phone off of the charger in her kitchen and pops it into her tote bag. no one calls her often, but she likes to keep it on her in case someone at work needs to get hold of her.
Once it was done brewing, she quickly popped a lid on it and went to the front door of her flat and grabbed her tote bag and shoes, deciding to wear her black heeled combat boots.
Her walk to work wasn’t very far, her apartment only being 15 minuets down the road. The sun was nowhere to be seen as she made her way there, the October weather a much-needed reprieve from the summer humidity. Leaves had already begun falling, covering the sidewalk in mini-piles that she stepped through as she made her way to the familiar red building.
Her coworker Elizabeth is already at the front desk, cataloging new releases before they open to the public. Hermione took out her store key from her pocket and unlocked the front door, stepping into the store and smelling the familiar comfort of books.
“Morning! We’ve got a bunch of stuff going out on the front table this morning, do you mind giving me a hand?” Elizabeth asks over the pile of books on the desk, her short blue hair making it easier to see where she's standing.
“Yeah, of course, let me pop my stuff in the back and I’ll come to help you,” Hermione replied as she made her way to the back room and opened the door. Putting her tote on the hook and grabbing her name badge, she tosses it over her neck as she makes her way up front to start switching around the displays.
“There’s a new book in that romance series you like that’s out today, do you want me to set it to the side before putting out the rest?”
“Yes, please, just pop it off to the side of the desk and put a sticky note with my name on it so I don’t forget.” She replies as she cleans the new release table, moving the books to the opposite side that had already been cleaned off and put on the books to be shelved cart. As she finishes transitioning the books to their new spot, Elizabeth comes over and starts front-facing and laying the new releases out.
“Ready to open when you are,” Hermione says as she moves to the door, as her coworker sets the last book down.
“Ready as I can be,” with that, she flips the closed sign to say open and unlocks the door, moving it open to let the autumn breeze come in.
She makes her way over to the cart and starts pulling titles from it, shelving them in their respective places as Elizabeth comes back to the desk and starts handling cash as customers come in and out of the store.
Hermione goes up on the ladder in the fiction section, bringing a few books and bracing her hand on the shelf to hold the ladder still as she starts reorganizing everything to fit the new books. As she goes to move down, her foot catches on the last step, and her heart jumps as she falls back. the floor and adjacent table never meet her, but a warm-toned body does as a set of cloth-covered arms reach out and brace her fall. Large hands wrap around her arms as she steadies herself.
A shot of pain goes through her arm as the person adjusts their grip and she lets out a wince, screwing her eye’s shut as pain lances up and down her arm.
“Are you alright?” The person who caught her asks, his voice low and gravelly and oddly familiar. She turns as he lets go of her arms and freezes in her tracks.
“Hermione?” He asks, his steel Grey eyes furrowing in concern as he looks her up and down. Her breath caught in her throat as she backed herself up against the ladder. He’s much bigger than when she last saw him, his shoulders more broad, and taller than before as well. She cranes her neck to look at him as she tries to make her voice work.
“You tell no one, and I mean no one, that you saw me, Theodore.” She tries to force as much venom into her tone as possible. Hoping he’ll take the hint to leave her alone.
“No, thank you for making sure you didn’t crack your head off the table behind you?” He scoffs, running a hand through his short, dark curly hair.
“Thank you, I just - please, Theodore,” She begs silently as her eyes jump around the store, as if others from her past life might start appearing.
He tracks her movement, accessing the store like anyone will come and jump out at them at any moment. Her hands shake as she looks back at him, her chest rising and falling rapidly as her palms sweat.
“I’m here alone, Hermione, it’s alright. I won’t tell anyone, are you quite alright?” He asks softly, trying to soften his tone as much as possible. She takes a few shuddering breaths as she attempts to steady herself.
“I’m fine, please just pretend you never saw me.” Hermione turns on her heel and makes her way to the front desk, having her Muggle coworker right next to her so Theodore couldn’t ask any further questions.
“Oh my gosh, Hermione, are you quite alright?t You’re bleeding.” Elizabeth reaches for Hermione’s arm and snatches it away quickly. Holding her arm against herself defensively as she steps past her to make her way to the back room.
“I’ll be fine, must have scrapped it while I was shelving books. I’ll be right back.”
She rushes through the store, past a very confused Theo, as she slams the door to the back room and locks it.
Moving her sleeve back to see the blood seeping through the gauze. She makes quick work of taking the bandage off and going over to her tote to grab new gauze. The back room thankfully had a sink so she could rinse her arm off and try to dab the stain out of her sweater with cold water. She tosses the old bandage under the sink and adds paper towels on top to hide the evidence.
“Hermione, let me in, will you?” Theo begs softly through the door, and she groans, watching the cold water run red.
“Bugger off please, I’m fine.” A small ping goes off as Theo opens the door, stuffing his wand guiltily into his black trench coat before looking at her.
He shuts the door behind him quickly as his eyes track the blood from her arm going into the sink.
“Get the fuck out right now, Nott.” She hisses at him, her back tensing as he looks at her in shock, his mouth gaping as his face pales.
“Did you not hear me? I said to get out.” Hermione glares at him as she turns the water off and pats her arm dry with paper towels.
“How?” He whispers as he reaches out to her, and she stumbles back against the wall that has open shelves from the floor to the ceiling.
“Please.” She whimpers and backs into the wall like a wounded animal.
He steps forward and grasps her wrists, looking at the mangled wound that never closed.
“Let me help.” He begs her, his eyes pleading with her to let him in. She shakes in his hold as her eyes dart from the door to him.
“There’s absolutely nothing you can do, Theo, so please, just let me be. Please, walk out that door and go on with whatever you were doing in life and act like you never saw me,” Hermione’s voice wobbles as silence engulfs the room, they watch each other carefully as if one of them will draw their wand out and start a battle in the back of the store.
Theo’s gaze looks to the counter where the roll of gauze lies, and he nods his head toward it.
“At the bare minimum, let me wrap it, and then I’ll be on my way. It’s only fair that I help, considering my earlier assistance made your wound reopen.” He pleads with her softly, his hand gently holding her arm still as she processes his words. She could easily shove him off if she wanted to.
“Fine, but promise me you’ll leave after this.” Her eyes are cast down to the floor, refusing to make eye contact with him. He lets go of her hand and moves back, her arm falling to her side. “Can I have you sit on the counter? I’ll help you up.” He asks her softly, letting her take her time to decide if it’s alright. She nods her head, a few stray curls slipping from her hair stick.
“Use your words, please, I won’t do anything without you explicitly saying yes.” His hands come under her chin to make her look up at him, having her make eye contact. He watches her brown eyes get glassy as she squares her shoulders.
“Yes, you can.” Her voice is almost foreign and robotic as Theo moves closer to her, lifting her easily to sit on the counter next to the sink.
Her legs dangle off the edge, and he pins her in place by bracketing his legs around hers. He slows his movements so he doesn’t startle her as he takes her arm, resting it between them as he unravels the gauze. He takes a good look at the inflamed skin around the carving in her arm. Every letter is deep into her delicate skin, and all of them have a clear liquid bubbling around the edges.
“Do you have anything to put on it?” He asks her gently, and her head nods over to her tote bag hanging by the exit door.
“Brown jar at the bottom of my tote.” He nods and moves to grab her tote, placing it on the counter and digging through it until his hand grasps the jar and pulls it out. Turning the tap on, he places the gauze and jar on Hermione’s lap and washes his hands quickly. After drying them, he opens the jar and swipes his finger over the paste. The smell of Dittany hits his nose as he steadies his finger just outside of the injury, looking up at Hermione, he finds her staring off.
“Hey, look at me.” Her eyes lift to his as he gives her an encouraging smile.
“It’s better if you just get it over with.” She sighs and winces as Theo quickly swipes his finger over the wound. Her skin is hot to the touch as he pulls away, the inflammation just barely receding.
“This can’t be right,” Theo whispers as he watches it have hardly any effect.
“I’ve tried, it’s the only thing that even touches it.” His concerned gaze finds hers as he furrows his eyebrows.
“Just wrap it.” She mumbles and he obliges, moving his hands quickly to wrap the whole wad of gauze around her arm. Taking care to be as gentle as possible. Once he finishes, he steps back and lets her hop down from the counter.
“Thank you, but please don’t ever come here again.”Hermione whispers, and as she tries to pass hi,m he stops her.
“You’ve still got some blood on your sleeve, here let me scourgify it.” He moves to take out his wand from inside his coat, but she jumps out of his hold, bolting out the door as if he was going to avada her. Leaving him confusingly staring after her as the door slams shut in his face.